WMU News

WMU moves up in U.S. News & World Report national college rankings

Aug. 26, 1999

KALAMAZOO -- Making its 10th consecutive appearance on U.S. News and World Report's list of top national universities, Western Michigan University advanced in the listing this year and is now listed among the top 100 public universities in the nation.

"This is wonderful news," said WMU President Elson S. Floyd of the magazine's newest listing. "We're delighted to move up in the rankings, but we've set our sights even higher and will continue our efforts to see WMU recognized as one of the nation's top student-centered research universities."

The prestigious annual ranking of U.S. universities appears in the Aug. 30 issue of the magazine. The list includes 147 public universities and 81 private institutions. The top 50 universities are numerically ranked and the remaining universities are listed alphabetically in second, third and fourth tiers.

WMU first appeared on the list in 1991 and has been included each year since then. The 2000 listing places WMU for the first time in the third tier of national universities, putting it in the company of only 100 public universities.

U.S. News & World Report categorizes national universities as those that offer "a full range of undergraduate majors as well as master's and doctoral degrees." In addition, many national research universities "strongly emphasize research."

The rankings are based on more than a dozen criteria including academic reputation, graduation rates, selectivity, student/faculty ratios, class size, faculty resources and percentage of students who come from the top 10 percent of their high school class.

Media contact: Cheryl Roland, 616 387-8400, cheryl.roland@wmich.edu


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